[The Chicken Lady]

My 5 ryeland ewes are due to lamb after 15th March for the first time so am only expecting singles. What is twin lamb disease and what is drench    As you can tell I am new to all this. My brother-in-law will be on hand to give advice at lambing time but as a midwife I have my gloves at the ready  I am feeding them as advice given on this site and they have minerals. Is there anything else I should be doing   

[tirdu]

Twiin lamb disease is a lack of energy due to the lambs taking it all up out of the ewe. The drench is the liquid product which you give to the ewes that are suffering with it. This drench contains energy to help the ewe get back on her feet. My way of dealing  with the problem for many years is if a sheep is suffering from twin lamb they a give them a bottle full of lucozade straight down, works wonders.

[danndans]

we've used that loads of times Tirdu...............also another good one is porridge and brown sugar    i also put black treacle on it 

glucose is a good quick fix its absorbed very quick so gets to work alot quicker

[tirdu]

Did the lucozade work 4 u then dandanns? Certainly does for us ? 

[danndans]

yep does, andhaving the chemist at the end of the lane means its there at hand when ever we want it

[tirdu]

Handy, we always buy them when there on offer at aberystyth when doingg the weekly shop ready for the season.

[VSS]

Twin lamb disease is a bit more serious than just a lack of energy, although it caused by a lack of sufficuent energy in the diet, usually because the sheep are carrying too many lambs and don't have the body capacity to eat enough food to meet their energy requirements. In this situation they start to break down muscle to meet energy requirements causing ketosis - BAD.

Treatment is very difficult and if you are getting lots of success with twin lamb drenches then your sheep probably haven't got true twin lamb disease. Mortality tends to be about 90% once ketosis sets in.

If you can get them eating then they might pull through, egg yolk, milk and black treacle is as good as any lamb drench you can buy - provides energy and something to get the rumen working. If the ewe lambs or slips her lambs then she has a better chance of survival.

It is a depressing thing to treat as treatment is generally so unsuccessful - but can be prevented to a large extent by good management

[Rosemary]

I was in our local farm supply shop yesterdady and was bewildered by the variety of "lambing" products for sale. It's worse than Mothercare! I'm sure I don't need all of them ... Do I?

[VSS]

No you don't - you will as time goes by get together a group of "favourite" products that work for you.

Thermovite from Tithebarn is our favourite.

[danndans]

porridge oats and brown sugar works a treat too   

but like vss say's when it kicks in you'r fighting a loosing battle most the time.